


A Rather Fortunate Fire

by whoneedscanon



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, F/M, Human AU, Meet-Cute, One Shot, but i might write more in this universe, tumblr au prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 02:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3157418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoneedscanon/pseuds/whoneedscanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fire alarm goes off, the building next door is on fire, and she meets the guy of her dreams in his underwear. Just a day in the life of Buffy Summers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Rather Fortunate Fire

**Author's Note:**

> based on this text post: http://iggycat.tumblr.com/post/100539179472/someone-needs-to-write-a-the-fire-alarm-went-off

Buffy awoke with a start, or more like a heart attack. The fire alarms in her apartment complex screeched incessantly from every corner of her building. No doubt her down the hall neighbor, Anya, set something on fire in an attempt to make a midnight meal…again. She jumped up out of bed and pulled on a pair of pajama shorts and slipping her feet into slippers. She grabbed her purse and her keys off the bedside table and bounded outside of her apartment. The last time this happened it had been about ten minutes after the fire department arrived that everyone was allowed to go back inside. Crisis averted. This time she could smell smoke, the scent heavy and thick in the air and hurried out into the hallway and down the stairs, taking them a couple at a time. 

The emergency exit door was already wide open, and a breeze carrying the scent of smoke filtered in as Buffy rushed out. She didn’t stop until she was a fair distance away, vaguely remembering the rules of fire drills at Sunnydale High School. The sound of sirens grew louder as she assessed the state of the complex. Flames licked their way out of the windows the top floors on the west side of the building, miraculously away from her building. A small crowd of fleeing tenants had gathered down the street but she lingered nearer to the building, in shock.

She couldn’t decide between staring in astonishment at the flames consuming her neighbors’ homes and turning away in horror. When she finally turned her back to the flames, trying desperately to look at anything else, she collided with a man, a very shirtless, very only-wearing-boxers kind of man.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry.” The words tumbled out of her mouth on autopilot, her brain slamming on the brakes as she looked at the only thing that could possibly distract her from a burning building. Of course the only thing that could distract her from a burning building was a total hunk.

“My apologies. I, um, I took a step and you…”

“Took a step and here we are,” Buffy finished for him.

“Yeah,” he said breathless, probably from the smoke.

“I’m Buffy, the total klutz who apparently tries to knock people over when there’s a fire in building three.”

“Angel, lucky enough to be knocked over when there’s a fire in building three.”

“Pretty name,” she told him.

Buffy grinned, that big dopey grin Willow always says is reserved for the cutest of cute guys. The fire trucks finally arrived, sirens wailing and then cutting off abruptly, in the parking lot. Under the torrent of water, the flames started to subside but Buffy only had eyes for this guy, Angel. She belatedly realized that she had only woken up a few moments ago and her hair more than likely resembled a haystack. She ran her fingers through her hair as casually as possible. Luckily, she didn’t catch any major tangles and managed to smooth the only mild mess of her hair.

“So, judging by your only mild state of panic, I’m hopinh that you don’t live in building three?” Buffy hedged a guess.

“Uh, I do actually. On the east side so hopefully there’ll just be smoke damage and the fire won’t have reached mine.”

“Oh yikes, I’m so sorry. Does anyone know what happened?”

“I heard someone say electrical fire. Wouldn’t surprise me, the landlord isn’t exactly on top of maintenance.”

“You can say that again. I put in a maintenance request a month ago for a broken faucet…Which, is now going to get moved to the very bottom of the list and my god here I am babbling when your building is on fire.”

Angel smiled, his grin wide and lopsided, and he laughed a short but genuine chuckle. Buffy was doing her absolute best to either maintain eye contact or look at just about anything above Angel’s neck. This was not the time for ogling, no matter the circumstances and no matter how hunky he was.

“I don’t mind. I like listening,” he said as the grin faded into a half smile, half smirk.

“Well then we’ll get along great because I often cannot find the off switch on the chatter box.”

He laughed that same short chuckle and Buffy felt her heart flutter a little. There hadn’t been a guy laughing at even her best jokes in a long time. Unless you counted Xander of course, but he was obligated by law to find her funny in accordance with Best Friends Decree Number Eighty Six. So really, you couldn’t count Xander. 

Conversation flowed so naturally with Angel. It had been a long time since she had felt so comfortable around someone so quickly and she found herself opening up easily to his questions, even if they were just basic small talk. She found out that he was a history major at UC Sunnydale and a couple of years older than her, and she told him that she was majoring in psychology. She wanted to know more, instantly wanted to get to know this guy who said so few words but spoke volumes. A sudden surge of courage and a crazy idea hit Buffy all at once.

“Um, this might be…odd…under the circumstances,” Angel began, “but I’m kind of handy. I could probably fix your sink if you wanted my help?” 

Buffy might have been a little rusty in the guy department, but she still knew a perfect opening when she was offered one.

“That would be super helpful! And I could pay you back…say with a cup of coffee this weekend…that is if you aren’t too busy with apartment stuff.”

“I think I can find some time in there for a cup of coffee and fixing a sink no problem.”


End file.
